National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed to have arrested another accused related in Pulwama attack case in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed in an IED blast on 14.2.2019.
In a statement, NIA said one more accused namely Mohd. Iqbal Rather (25 yrs.) s/o Abdul Khaliq Rather r/o Futlipura, Charar-e-Shareef, Budgam, Jammu & Kashmir has been arrested.
Mohd. Iqbal Rather had facilitated the movement of Muhammad Umar Farooq, the JeM militant and a key conspirator in this case, after he infiltrated into the Indian territory in Jammu region in April, 2018, from the National Highway near International border to South Kashmir. Mohd. Umar Farooq, along with others, had assembled the IED used in the attack.
Mohd. Iqbal Rather had been undergoing judicial custody since September, 2018 in another Jaish-e-Mohammed related case investigated by NIA. As such, he was produced by the Jail authorities before the NIA Special Court, Jammu today i.e. 02.07.2020, and was taken into 07 day’s NIA custody for his interrogation.
Initial examination has revealed that Mohd. Iqbal Rather was in constant touch with Pakistan-based leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammed and was in communication with them over secure messaging applications. Mohd. Iqbal Rather was part of the ‘transportation module’ of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist organisation.
With this arrest, NIA has so far arrested 06 accused persons in this case.
Investigation in this case is in progress the statement reads.
